A one-man commission headed by a retired district judge came scouting on Thursday for the tanks lost to encroachment in Kumbakonam town and was aghast to see the appalling conditions of the existing ones even as it inquired into the vanished waterbodies.
Following a petition under the Right To Information Act by social activist Sundara Vimalnathan that was furthered by another activist Yanai Rajendran, the Madras High Court had directed retired District Judge Solaimalai to probe the “disappearance” and status of encroachment in various tanks in Kumbakonam town last week.
Mr. Solaimalai arrived here on Thursday to undertake a field survey of the status of tanks and waterbodies, and the encroachments, in specific, that effaced them. Officials including Assistant Director (Survey) Rajkumar, Assistant Commissioner of HR&CE department Gnanasekaran, Kumbakonam Municipal Commissioner Uma Maheswari, PWD Assistant Executive Engineer Anandan and others briefed the commission on the status of the tanks.
The team first visited the tank on the EB office premises at Chetty Mandapam and saw the heavily silted tank and then inspected the tank belonging to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam at Bairagi Thope. The judge quizzed the accompanying officials on the encroachments that had engulfed the sprawling tank, without removing which a compound had been constructed at a cost of ₹40 lakh. The Municipal officials found it difficult to answer queries on why houses abutting the tank periphery were letting in untreated sewage water directly into the tank.
At the Ayee Kulam, the inquiry commissioner wondered how a car parking has come up after filling up a part of the tank for the purpose. It expressed surprise at the installation of EB poles inside the tank. At the famous Potramarai tank, the judge asked why the encroachments choking the inlet channels were allowed and not cleared. Also, the commission expressed displeasure at the encroachments that have subsumed the mandapams on the four corners of the tank.
The team would continue to inspect the status of the tanks in Kumbakonam on Friday too. Municipal records reveal that there were around 44 tanks in the temple town that has more than 50 famous shrines that are frequented by thousands of devotees everyday. Many of them have been irretrievably encroached and their inlet channels choked.
A few of the tanks breathed a new lease of life in the run up to the Mahamaham in 2016 but most have choked to death.
